A course in intellectual dishonesty – Dec 31, 2008

Posted by neal

from the Lincoln Journal Star

electoral votes barack obama

In fairness to Governor Heineman and state GOP leaders, it’s not like Nebraskans have ever forced them to make a sound case for their policy proposals — fear, ignorance and cultural resentment have worked fine so far. I hope to have a column posted within the next few days that makes a reasonable argument against district-based distribution of electoral votes. Nebraska Republicans may wish to take notes if they want to add any intellectual credibility to their case to ensure that the embarrassing blue dot never happens again.

Matthew Yglesias on the “Magic Negro” party

Posted by neal

from thinkprogress.org:

One of the distinguishing characteristics of modern American conservatism is that it believes in a curious concept of “color blindness.” In this view, racism is bad. But absent truly egregious behavior, it’s not something you’d really get all that upset about nor is it something you should be really attuned do. But so-called “political correctness” — meaning something like anti-racism that’s gone too far — is a really serious problem. Any hint of political correctness is worth getting upset about. And the views of actual members of racial minorities as to what is and isn’t racist should be completely discounted. Rather than saying that the prudent and decent white person will steer a mile clear of racist activity — sending out “Barack the Magic Negro” CDs, for example — the best course of action is to deliberately drive straight at the line and then get really upset at anyone who says you’ve crossed it.

This comes on the news that Chip Saltsman’s “Barack the Magic Negro” song parody is actually helping him in his quest to become RNC chairman.